november-2012

LUXURY VENICE
frontages held up by columns, light and
airy rooms – that has dominated European
architecture ever since. From London to
Leipzig, Porto to St Petersburg, step into any
elegant street and you can see his influence.
Born in 1508 to a lowly gondola-maker,
Palladio established his career building
large country villas for noble families on
the mainland of the Veneto region that
surrounds Venice. As his reputation grew,
he was commissioned to produce churches
and public buildings scattered through the
city of Venice itself.
And since a tour of his works takes in not
just a journey through architectural history,
but also through the atmosphere of
renaissance Italy – a time of pleasure and
decadence (not to mention intrigue and
danger) – it is doubly hard to resist. So
here I am, suspended above the rose
petals, while my masseuse, Angela, gently
rubs lavender oil into my temples, the only
sounds the same songs of birds that Palladio
would have heard 500 years ago as he sat
on this site dreaming of what he could build.
An hour later, rose-scented and relaxed,
I gaze up at the Zitelle church, which
displays Palladio’s passion for the beauty
of the simple straight line and the gentle
curve. It is a strong work, but not his
masterpiece. The architect’s finest church
was the neighbouring Church of the
Redeemer, just a few steps away, and built
in 1577 to give thanks to God for saving two
thirds of the city’s population from the
bubonic plague that had raged that year.
The front of the church displays all of
Palladio’s trademarks: a square design that
imposes strength; classical columns to
unite the building with Rome’s majestic
history; steps reaching up to the entrance
that signify the road to heaven is not easy.
It really is no coincidence that Venice was
known as The Serene Republic in an era
when Palladio’s vision of quiet strength
was at its very heart.
Stepping through the door can surprise
many a visitor used to the ornate churches
of Rome, because it is simple, mostly white
and very light inside. Palladio was a pious
man who did not approve of excessive
palladio was
a revolutionary,
a dreamer of rome
and a prophet of
modernity
decoration (and preferred it if people
marvelled at his architecture rather than
some hack painter’s fresco). But there are
curiosities too – no visitors should miss the
church’s rather bizarre collection of wax
effigies of the heads of former chief monks,
kept in glass jars in a room behind the altar;
a sort of freaky ecclesiastical version of
Madame Tussauds.
A water-taxi hop over to the main island
takes me to St Mark’s Square, the heart of
Venice. Palladio would no doubt have
walked the same paving slabs, perhaps
stopping for a glass of wine or two.
Determined to get under the skin of a
renaissance nobleman, I stop off at the
finest restaurant on the square, the
Michelin-starred Ristorante Quadri, which
produces classical Italian cuisine just as
Palladio would have eaten on the same
spot half a millennium ago.
An hour away by train is the town of
Vicenza, where Palladio was based for the
early years of his career and is therefore
Top: Ristorante Quadri on St Mark’s Square, where
Palladio himself once dined. Bottom left and right:
the opulent Hotel Bauer Palladio is the former
convent of the Italian architect’s Zitelle Church
Previous page, from main image: The Doge’s Palace,
St Mark’s Square; the Church of The Redeemer on
the Giudecca is considered Palladio’s greatest work;
a statue of the architect in Vicenza
Eat, sleep, pamper
■ The Bauer Palladio Hotel and Spa,
double rooms with breakfast, €975 per
night; Vitalis bath therapy €90 for 30
minutes, palladiohotelspa.com pa.com
■ Eat like a doge
at Ristorante Quadri
(right) on St Mark’s
Square: tasting menu
€200, caffequadri.it
■ Live in the lap of luxury at Villa
Saraceno from €1,000 for three nights,
landmarktrust.org.uk;
villagodi.com; lamalcontenta.com
46 november 2012
FLY TO venice twice daily. brusselsairlines.com